Healthcare personnel are often tasked with transporting individuals from their wheelchairs to a bed or other support structure. As a result of these transportation tasks, many health care individuals are injured from the stress of moving heavy loads under much less than optimal conditions.
In many cases, the patients could transport themselves if there existed a convenient, viable, and safe means for the individual to slide from the wheelchair to a bed or vice versa. Even in those cases where the patient could not be completely self-sufficient, the stress on the health care provider could be minimized if the patient could still be transported in the sliding position, thereby eliminating the need for lifting heavy weights by the health care professional.
There have been several attempts to provide aid in transporting the patient. The most common method is the use of a transfer board. A transfer board is a thin tapered board used as a bridge for an individual to scoot from one armless chair, bed, or seating surface to another. Most wheelchairs are equipped with removable armrests to facilitate the use of transfer boards, if needed. The armrest is removed and the transfer board is positioned to extend from the seating surface of the wheelchair to the surface upon which the wheelchair occupant plans to move. The degree of independence exhibited by an individual using a transfer board is governed by his or her ability to: reach and control the transfer board with one or both upper extremities; position the wheelchair and remove the armrest; shift weight and place the transfer board underneath the buttocks; bear weight with upper extremities and slide across the transfer board; remove the transfer board at the conclusion of transfer; and overcome the fear of falling to allow for all of the aforementioned tasks.
One problem encountered in these transfers is an inability of the wheelchair user to remove and reattach the armrest to the wheelchair. The user must use visual or tactile skills to locate the spring pin which locks the armrest to the wheelchair. Then, the user must release and lift the armrest from its attachments on the wheelchair (often with the use of only one arm), and place the armrest aside where it is accessible for reattachment. The user must then reattach the armrest after returning to the wheelchair. In the cases of memory and motor deficits or tremors, the tasks of releasing the armrest and guiding it in and out of its two cylindrical attachments (one of which is outside the view of the individual) is often difficult.
In addition, many times a patient needs to be transferred from a supporting surface to a wheelchair and vice versa, a transfer board is not immediately available. A healthcare professional, who is typically under time constraints, must lifts the patient to enable the transfer. As mentioned before, this practice unfortunately results in many healthcare worker injuries each year.
Furthermore, the transfer board is not secured to the chair; consequently, the potential for injury exists should the board slide off the chair as the patient is being transferred. Typically, the transfer board is placed underneath the transferee prior to transfer. It is often difficult for the transferee to shift weight and place the transfer board. Even with proper placement, the board can still slide laterally with the transferee, precipitating a fall. Because transfers are rarely between surfaces of equal height, transfer boards tend to shift unnecessarily when weight is shifted during a transfer from a higher to a lower surface. This can also cause the lateral sliding of the transfer board. Consequently, a need exists for a wheelchair device including an arm chair with an integrated transfer board that permits a user to selectively move from a supporting surface to the wheelchair and vice versa.
The proposed invention eliminates these shortcomings by converting the armrest into a means for efficiently transporting the patient between the wheelchair and the bed. This ensures that the transference vehicle is always with the chair so that it will be available when needed. Since it is securely attached to the chair, there is no danger of it sliding out of position and causing injury to the patient, such as exists with the practice of placing a board on the seat of the chair. In addition, the proposed invention can be positioned by the patients themselves, offering them a degree of independence from the health care worker where warranted.